Many electronic, particularly semiconductor, components generate significant heat internally during operation which must be dissipated to avoid damage to the components. In case of some components, the internally-generated heat is dissipated sufficiently by the enclosure structure, header or leads of the components. In many components, however, it has been necessary to aid the dissipation of the heat by use of heat sinks and/or fans. A variety of heat sink and fan designs have been employed for dissipation of the heat from packages containing semiconductor components.
One commercial product design currently available from the assignee of the present invention and other sources for cooling semiconductor components uses a heat sink and a self-contained motorized fan unit in a stacked assembly. The heat sink is mounted on top of the semiconductor component, such as an Intel 80486 DX or DX2 microprocessor, so as to provide heat removal from the semiconductor component to the heat sink via a thermal compound applied between them. The fan unit is then mounted on top of the heat radiating fins of the heat sink to generate a flow of air for removing the heat transferred to the heat sink from the electronic component.
The above-described commercial product has met performance expectations and operated satisfactorily by limiting the surface temperature rise of the 80486 microprocessor to a maximum within the range of about 12.degree.-15.degree. F. above the background temperature of the installed environment. However, the overall profile of the assembled product is undesirably high, making it difficult to properly locate the product easily on the top of the microprocessor within the computer housing where space is scarce. In view of the foregoing drawback of the above-described commercial product, a need still exists for improvements in techniques for effective heat dissipation from semiconductor components.